Wednesday, April 25, 2012

During my searches I occaisionally come across bands that have that metallic sound that is ahead of it's time; early 70's bands that have elements of what was later termed the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal). For some time I have been thinking about collecting them together, so here it is. [Edit: Since making this I have done another, volume 121, and an American equivalent, volume 126] If you have never heard of NWOBHM then I guess I have two words that in my opinion describe it best, Judas Priest. The Birmingham, UK band that started out in the early 70's as a fairly typical hard rock band and had a clear, unique progression from the stylings of Sabbath, Zeppelin et al to the sharper, faster late 70's metal sound, influencing Iron Maiden along the way and kick starting all the 'extreme metal' scenes by being a huge favourite of early thrashers like Metallica and the more evil blackened bands like Venom. In some attempt to show a progression, this is the first comp I have arranged in chronological order.

Fable

I have combined a few of these early-mid 70's finds with a few late 70's bands (and a couple from '80), some of which are recognised as bona-fide NWOBHM originators like Tygers of Pan Tang and Quartz (produced by Tony Iommi) and some which are not but seem to me to fit in with the sound. The Flying Hat Band were a pretty obvious opening choice here, seeing as they were a direct fore-runner of Judas Priest, having Priest's Glenn Tipton on guitar. Fable were a Canadian band who's long lost 1975 album was recently issued by the Recordplex label and Cool Feet are a band I have used before way back on vol22, recorded by four guys from Luxembourg and the UK in the Cologne studio of Scopions Producer Dieter Dierks.

Along the way we find bands from Sweden (vol28's Rhapsody, White) and The US (Ultra, interview here - Texas, Legend - Connecticut, Survivor - Philadelphia). Ohio's White Boy And The Average Rat Band made a very obscure and very cool fuzz-drenched hard rocker that is said to be the work of just one talented guy, although he borrowed some mates to pose as a fake 'band' for the album cover. Trespass, Sledgehammer and Warrior are three great UK bands that I have come across when trawling through some obscure NWOBHM comps, who only made one or two singles. Warrior being a curio that I found on a 1980 comp called New Electric Warriors, a great track that has more in common with the early 70s' fuzzed-up wah grooves.

For the more metal-minded listeneres out there, this comp will be a real treat, and for those who are not so, this is also just a wicked collection of hard rock so.....enjoy, and more importantly.......\m/ ROCK OUT \m/.

I had no idea that the tradition of half-assedly naming your metal band something you saw in an Elric story went back as far as 1979's Tygers of Pan Tang. As always, thanks for the fantastic mix of stuff I never would have heard otherwise!

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Location: London, UK

Unzip problem? Make sure you enter the password, and for MAC users especially, I recommend using the free, opensource program 7Zip (there is a MAC version too), which is what I make the zips with. Feel free to contact me, or report dead/erroneous links, at: aftersabbath@live.co.uk If you have trouble with any volumes in particular email me and I'll sort out alternative methods.